Shadow NGO Report
on Turkey’s Initial Periodic Report
to the Committee on the Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights
for submission to the CESCR 46th Session
May 2011
prepared by Executive Committee for NGO Forum on CEDAW and
Women’s Platform on the Turkish Penal Code:




















AMARGI
Amnesty International Turkey Branch
The Foundation for Women’s Solidarity (FWS)
Association for the Support and Training of Women Candidates
Capital City Women’s Platform
Çanakkale Association to Promote Women’s Labor
Diyarbakır Bar Women’s Commission
Filmmor Women’s Cooperative
IRIS Equality Watch
KAHDEM – Center for Legal Support to Women Association
KAOS GL
KAZETE
LAMBDA
Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation
Republican Women’s Association
The Association of Turkish Women’s Union
Women’s Solidarity Foundation (KADAV)
Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways
Working Group for Women in Homebased Work
Van Women’s Association
1
Shadow NGO Report to the U.N. CESCR
Submitted by Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways, on behalf of the Turkish Penal
Code Platform and the Executive NGO Forum on CEDAW - Turkey1
For submission to the 46th session of CESCR, May 2011
This Shadow Report aims to draw attention to the discrimination and the human rights
violations that women in Turkey face, within the framework of the Initial Review for Turkey
under CESCR to take place in May 2011. The following evaluation and demands are based on
the shadow report submitted to the U.N. CEDAW Committee in July 2010 by 20 NGOs and 6
NGO platforms.
Under the current Government’s second term (since 2007), there has been little
progress in Turkey in terms of the necessary legal and institutional reforms for gender
equality. The few positive steps include the establishment of a parliamentary commission on
gender equal opportunity in 2009; inclusion of temporary special measures (positive
discrimination) in the Turkish Constitution in 2010; and the passing of a temporary policy on
social security premium reductions to promote women’s employment. While women’s NGOs
commend these developments, overall, the official discourse on the issue of gender equality
has been observed to increasingly acquire a reluctant, hesitant, and sometimes contradictory
tone, and state commitment to substantive gender equality before the law has been inadequate.
The Prime Minister of Turkey held a roundtable meeting with women’s NGOs in July
2010 to hear their views on the so-called “democratization initiative” started by his
Government.. Here he made a public statement as follows “I have to admit that, I do not
believe that women are equal to men. Women and men are born different and they are
different by nature but they compliment each other.” As the statement triggered protesting
opposition from the NGO representatives around the table, the Prime Minister reverted “of
course by saying that they are not equal, please do not take me wrong. Although I do not
believe in the equality of men and women, I do believe in the equality of opportunity.”
Despite calls from women’s NGOs to correct the confusion caused by his statements, the
Prime Minister repeated the same position at another public meeting a few months later. The
confusing messages coming from the Prime Minister regarding gender equality has triggered
in the past few months, a series of public statements by a number of male NGO leaders,
columnists and academics challenging the idea of gender equality, emphasizing the different
nature of men and women and hence supporting preservation of distinct gender roles. One
columnists of a conservative paper went as far as openly writing that women SHOULD NOT
be part of the labor market.
As a result, incomplete or controversial issues still remain in the reforms that have
been passed, and in implementation, tangible progress is almost nonexistent. In particular, an
unwillingness to improve resource allocation hinders the achievement of full legal and actual
gender equality.
The increasing conservatism poses a threat to women’s ability to enjoy their rights and
freedoms. The already acquired legal rights of women are subject to backlash and efforts that
aim to eradicate existing discrimination are usually met with resistance. Even positive actions
1
Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways is an activist feminist NGO based in Istanbul and founded in
1993. For details please see www.wwhr.org. The Turkish Penal Code Platform and the Executive NGO
Committee on CEDAW - Turkey entail a total of 20 feminist NGOs based in Turkey.
2
by the government have conservative undertones, and include loopholes that may infringe on
existing rights and freedoms. Within the Constitution the article on positive discrimination
measures for gender equality, for instance, classify women with “groups in need of
protection” as if they were a minority or a vulnerable group. Furthermore, the Social Security
and General Health Insurance Law, adopted in 2008, stripped women of their existing social
security rights and fell behind the progressive Civil Code. In reference to paragraph 10 of the
List of Issues by CESCR, there is increasing emphasis on the normative family structure of
the nuclear and the extended family, with a neatly separated, gender-based division of labor,
and women as the caretakers of these structures. Political and social discourses have also
echoed this rising conservatism on occasion, as evidenced in the Prime Minister’s statement
that “men and women are not equal, they are complimentary” (explained above), his
preceding call to women that each family should have at least three children, that comments
by the State Minister of Women’s and Family Affairs, who claimed ―homosexuality is an
illness; and social research conducted with a representative national sample, indicating the
presence and rise of both a non-tolerance of differences, and community pressure.2
Women’s participation in decision making processes and representation rates in
decision making bodies have always been drastically low compared to men in Turkey, and
existing regulations and their implementation remains insufficient. In reference to List of
Issues by CESCR paragraph 11, although there was a relative increase in the rate of women’s
representation in parliament (9.1%) after the 2007 general election, this is not only far from
the desired equal representation but also much below the global average (18.9%) calculated
by the Inter Parliamentary Union.3 Women’s representation in parliament is still determined
by the arbitrary practices of higher administrative bodies or political party leaders.
Only 2 out of 25 members (8%) of the cabinet are women. The government’s response
to women’s organizations’ demands on the issue is merely symbolic. Neither the government,
nor the other parties in the Parliament, except BDP, commit to a set quota for increasing
women’s participation fort he upcoming national elections.
I. The Principle of Equality before the Law
Related Articles: 2, 3 and 10
The Turkish Constitution lacks a clear explanation defining discrimination against women.
The temporary special measures for achieving gender equality in the Constitution have been
combined with the temporary special measures for vulnerable groups, thus creating a loophole
for one to undermine the other or for their treatment as similar or interchangeable. This
clearly illustrates the inadequacy of the state’s political will to achieve gender equality. There
is also still the risk that the ―special temporary measures‖ will serve to reinforce
women’s traditional role in the family and society, and bolster current inequalities.
Further, while women’s and LGBTTI groups demanded adding ―ethnic origin, sexual
orientation, gender identity, marital status, age, disability‖ to the equality article,
banning discrimination on the basis of these qualities was rejected during the recent
preparations for this new Constitution.
Amendments made to certain laws with the intent of achieving gender equality lose all
2
B. Toprak et al. 2008. “Türkiye’de Farklı Olmak: Din ve Muhafazakârlık Ekseninde Ötekileştirilenler‖ [Being
Different in Turkey: Alienation on the Axis of Religion and Conservatism], Boğaziçi University.
http://www.idealdusunce.com/turkiyede_farkli_olmak[1].pdf, and Y. Esmer,
3
Inter Parliamentary Union website. 2010. ―Women in National Parliaments: World Average – situation as of
28 February 2010‖. http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm.
3
function when necessary changes are not made to any parallel laws and regulations.
As Article 10 of the current Turkish Civil Code Enactment Law that regulates the
matrimonial property regime does not apply retroactively, millions of women who
were married before 2002 and unable to apply to the authorities within the following
year to change their matrimonial property regime, cannot enjoy the equal division of
property acquired during marriage. Moreover, the appeal filed at the Constitutional Court
regarding the above mentioned article of the Civil Code was rejected in 2009.
Despite all our efforts and strong public support during the construction of the new
Turkish Penal Code (in effect as of June 1, 2005), it proved impossible to pass a clause
deterrent enough to prevent honor killings, a direct violation of women’s right to life. 4
In reference to paragraph 21 of the List of Issues by the CESCR, the term used in the Turkish
Penal Code for honor killings is “killings in the name of Custom”. Custom killings provide a
legal loophole that limits the scope of the article to only a certain type of honor killing, such
as family assembly verdicts, or as if it only exists in certain regions where certain customs
prevail. The state argued that the terminology used in the Turkish Penal Code, i.e. ―killings
in the name of custom, applies to all honor killings in Turkey and thus provides a legal basis
to resolve this problem. Moreover, in a ruling issued in 2008, the Supreme Court of Appeals
sought the existence of a “family assembly verdict”, a rather abstract notion which is almost
impossible to prove, in order to sentence the accused with aggravated homicide.5 This
ruling nullifies Article 82/J of the Penal Code, which foresees ―aggravated punishment
for the perpetuators of killings in the name of custom. Furthermore, women’s organizations’
demands to be granted intervener status in such cases are constantly rejected, leaving the chair
of the intervener—who is supposed to protect the rights of the victim against the defendant—
unattended.
Articles in the Penal Code that imply discrimination against women and girls, such as
virginity testings hidden under the term “gynecological examinations” and lack of prohibition
of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity were not amended since the
acceptance of the Code in 2005.
Despite the above-mentioned shortcomings, the legal reform processes of the Civil
and Penal Codes brought about rather progressive changes that may be seen as steps in
the right direction to achieve gender equality before the law. To a large extent, rather
progressive changes were made in the Turkish Civil Code and Turkish Penal Code, 2001 and
2005 respectively, as a result of the persistent and vocal lobbying efforts by women’s
organizations, and the receptivity to these demands by the parliament and governments of the
time.
To ensure the implementation of the amendments, the state should conduct awareness
raising programs for both public authorities and the general public, and monitor
implementation closely.
Call for Action
The Constitution, Equality Framework Law, Commission on Gender Equality
1. Law on Gender Equality should be drafted urgently and the Constitutional article
on equality should include a clear definition of discrimination against women.
4
Instead of using the internationally recognized term ―honor killings‖ the law introduces a newly coined
concept called “killings in the name of custom” which limits the scope of the crime and makes it more difficult
to prove.
5
Kazete. 2008. “Töre cinayetlerine „aile meclisi kararı‟ şartı” [Court calls for ―family assembly verdict‖ in
custom killing] http://arsiv.kazete.com.tr/sayilar/2008/76/?bolum=haberler&sayfa=politika06.
4
2. The temporary special measures designated in the Constitution should ensure women’s
equal participation in all spheres of life. These measures should be developed so as to fulfill
specific requirements toward gender equality, and be protected by law.
3. Gender equality education should be integrated into the occupational training of public
officials such as law enforcement personnel, health professionals, social workers,
teachers et cetera to ensure the new laws are executed. Widespread and
comprehensive on-the-job trainings for the current public authorities should be implemented.
4. In reference to paragraph 5 of the List of Issues by CESRC to Turkey, Lesbian, bisexual,
and transsexual women who are physically or verbally harassed, or suffer other forms of
violence have no chance of redress through the courts, since discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation and gender identity is not defined as a crime in the Penal Code, and neither
the Article 10 of the Constitution nor the ―equality clause acknowledges ―sexual
orientation and gender identity as a form of discrimination. Article 10 should be amended to
include ―sexual orientation and gender identity.
5. Women’s organizations should be recognized as natural stakeholders in legislation
processes to ensure gender equality in all spheres of life.
The Turkish Civil Code
1. The Enactment Law of the Turkish Civil Code (Article 10) should be amended to
apply retroactively to the Equal Division of Acquired Property Regime, as is the case
in the Swiss Civil Code on which it is based.
2. The Turkish Civil Code does not allow married women to use their birth last names
exclusively; they may do so only together with their husband’s last name. Moreover,
women’s birth registries are transferred to their husbands’ after marriage. The current
amended draft law is not in line with international treaties. A new draft law that
adheres to international treaties and agreements should be drawn up and passed by
parliament.
3. The Civil Code imposes a 300-day marriage ban on divorced women after the divorce
is finalized, which is lifted only upon presenting a report to the judge that proves they
are not pregnant. This is a discriminatory regulation and should be abolished.
4. Women have no say on their children’s last name. Children may only take their
father’s last name. The legal regulation that enabled single women to pass on their last
name to their children was annulled by the Constitutional Court. There is a need for a
new law that gives mothers and father equal rights in passing on their last name to
their children.
The Turkish Penal Code
1. Article 82 of the Turkish Penal Code regulates Aggravated Homicide, and states that
“killings in the name of custom” instead of “honor killings” meets the conditions for
aggravated homicide. The justification of the article provides the grounds for sentence
reductions based on unjust provocation. This hinders effective punishment of the
perpetrators of “honor killings”. Honor killings should be classified as aggravated
homicide in Article 82, and all references to “unjust provocation” should be removed
from its justification.
2. Article 287 of the Penal Code should be rephrased to include the expression
“conducting virginity testing is forbidden”; if in a given case a judge or prosecutor
authorizes the exam, the consent of the woman should be a mandatory prerequisite.
3. Article 104 foresees punishment for consensual sexual relations between young people
between 15 and 18 years of age upon complaint by a third party. Article 104/1 should
5
be abolished.
4. Article 122 regulates discrimination and should include discrimination based on sexual
orientation, gender identity and medical diagnoses.
5. In reference to paragraph 5 of the List of Issues by CESRC to Turkey, Article 226/2 under
the section entitled “Offences against Public Morality” refers to “obscenity” and is used
against LGBTTI individuals and organizations; it should be annulled.
V. Women’s Participation in the Labor Force29
Related articles: 6, 7, 8, 9
The female employment rate in Turkey is one of the lowest in
the world, stagnant around 20% for the past 25 years for which comparable data exist.
According to official national statistics of 2010 only 24 out of every 100 adult women are in
eployment. Leaving out unpaid female agricultural workers, urban female employment rates
are even lower: only 19 of every 100 adult women in urban areas are employed, and 62
percent of the women who do not participate in the labor market indicate being a full
time homemaker as their reason for non-participation.
While the vast gender gap (male employment rates are more thab 40 percentage points
higher than women’s) in employment is one of the worst gender indicators in Turkey, the
state lacks a coordinated national action plan on this matter. Despite concerted efforts by
women’s NGOs, Government actions remain of an ad hoc, once-off, “project” basis, primarily
emphasizing entrepreneurship and microcredit support programs.
A Prime Ministerial Circular (No. 2010/14) was issued in late May 2010, on
“Increasing Women’s Employment and Achieving Equal Opportunity.”
This is potentially an important step forward to increase women’s participation in the labor
force. It outlines several measures to identify and eliminate obstacles before women’s
employment. The Circular is also important as it reflects many of the demands voiced by
women’s groups, and is a product of collaborative efforts between the government and
women’s platforms. However, as delineated below, further comprehensive legal reform and
policy change on the issue remains crucial. Women’s groups will monitor the implementation
of the circular, and continue to lobby for legislative amendments to ensure the equal
participation of women in the labor force.
The official emphasis on entrepreneurship and microcredit as the main channels for
women’s entry into the labor market falls short of challenging formal paid wage and salary
employment as a male domain. Two important prerequisites for successful entrepreneurship—
having prior business experience and contacts, and start-up capital—, are possible if the
person is already employed in a paid job. Women are unable to access loans since they own
very few personal assets. In reference to paragraph 19 of the List of Issues by CESCR,
entrepreneurship also involves high risks and carries the threat of being excluded from the
social security system.
None of the government actions undertaken in the recent years entail a comprehensive
reform initiative towards the creation of legal and institutional mechanisms enabling, for the
long term, women’s entry to the labor market. There has been no progress, for instance, in the
provision of publicly sponsored childcare and preschool education services. The preschool
enrollment rate for children between 0 and 3 years of age is less than 1 percent in Turkey;
there is in fact no official data on enrollment rates for this age group. For children in the 4 to 5
age group, preschool enrollment rates have barely reached 10 percent. This means that from
birth until the age of 5, children are presumed to be in full-time care of their mothers.
The only legal obligation for providing childcare services to employed parents is an
6
item in the Labor Law which states that “workplaces with more than 150 women are
obliged to provide free-of-charge crèches for their female employees.” This item is
discriminatory on multiple levels; only women employed by large enough businesses
in the formal sector—a minority within a minority—may benefit from this right.
Moreover, the legal obligation is based only on the number of female employees; this
is problematic in itself, reflecting the discriminatory approach that child-rearing is the
responsibility of women only. Finally, this provision is hardly ever enforced, and there
is no official Ministry of Labor or Ministry of Education data on the number of private
business that actually offer this service.
Sixteen weeks of maternity leave is the only publicly sponsored mechanism for workfamily life reconciliation in Turkey. Only a limited number of women who are in formal
employment (for most part university graduates) have access to this legal right. There is no
parental or paternity leave act for fathers. The draft law for parental leave has been pending in
parliament for the past decade. Moreover, the draft law in its current form entails a parental
leave right (in addition to maternity leave) to either the mother or the father on an unpaid
basis. Experiences from other countries show that unless parental leave is on a paid basis or
have a non-transferable component, fathers taking care leave remains a right on paper.
As a result, a general characteristic of female labor force participation in Turkey has
been that women participate at younger ages while single, and quit their jobs upon
pregnancy and childbirth. When and if at all, they return to the labor market when the
children have grown up; this is usually of a transitory nature motivated by economic
hardships.
While minimizing the responsibilities of employers as an alleged measure to boost
their global competitiveness, the government simultaneously uses budget insufficiencies and
non-interest surplus targets set by the IMF as an excuse to sustain the narrow scope of social
services. Thus the volume and intensity of care services needed at home increase, and the
burden is left entirely on women’s shoulders, reinforcing their traditional role as
“housewives” and hampering their ability to work in a paid job.
In this context, the Prime Minister of Turkey recently made several public statements,
calling on women in Turkey to give birth to a minimum of three children; this has
been a shocking expression of conservatism at the highest level of administration.
Following the Prime Minister’s call, several reports in the media have highlighted
provincial mayors who announced material incentives to families upon birth of a third
child. Despite protests from NGOs, the Prime Minister has made no retreat and
sustained his position.
The Turkish Employment Agency (ISKUR), the main employment agency in Turkey,
acts solely as an operational institution, as opposed to an agency that develops policy and
strategy. It has refrained from developing any temporary special measures to support
women’s employment, despite the fact that the low level of women’s employment is one of
the most pressing obstacles before Turkey’s development. The only initiatives have been the
dissemination of earmarked EU funds through the Agency for women’s employment
“projects” with no comprehensive evaluation. With the new Social Security and General
Health Insurance Law (2008), the conditions for accessing health insurance and retirement
eligibility have been made substantially harder (e.g. an increase in required days of premium
payment; divorced women losing the social security they had through their husbands; the lack
of social security rights for home injuries for women working in the house). The new
regulations further exclude women from the system and make women more dependent on
their fathers/husbands in order to be included in the social security network.34 The number of
women working in the public sector is also very disappointing.
7
Call for Action
1. The Prime Ministerial Circular No. 2010/14 should be fully implemented to achieve
complete gender equality in employment. Necessary legal amendments, outlined
below, should be made to support the circular. Women’s organizations, unions, and
trade organizations should be considered integral partners in the process.
2. Public institutions should report activities they have undertaken towards achieving
gender equality in public employment to the “Women’s Employment Monitoring and
Coordination Commission,” the pending establishment of which was outlined in
Circular No. 2010/14.
3. Ensuring gender equality in the economic sphere—primarily women’s equal access to
employment—should be adopted as the fundamental principle of Development Plans,
and linked to quantitative and qualitative targets within sectoral priorities. Authorities
should act with the target of ensuring gender equality in both financial and monetary
policies; all financial plans should be redesigned to this effect.
4. Creating legal and institutional mechanisms to reconcile work and family life needs to
become a fundamental aspect of any national policy to promote women’s
employment. The parental leave act should be enacted immediately to complement the
existing maternity leave act, and allow fathers to fulfill their equal responsibility in
childcare. To ensure effective implementation of the parental leave act for fathers, it
should entail a minimum of two months of leave non-transferable from the father to
the mother, and be on a paid basis as is maternity leave.
5. The government must immediately take necessary measures to establish, operate, and
allocate funds for preschool education and childcare services for children in the 0 to 5
age group. The state’s responsibility to provide universal preschool education needs to
be acknowledged.
6. Regulation No. 25522 on the Work Conditions of Pregnant or Nursing Women and
Nurseries and Childcare Centers should be amended; it should be based on the “total
number of female and male workers” and the required number of workers should be
reduced. Central and local administrations, organized industrial zones, as well as small
business owners should be obliged to provide childcare services.
7. The implementation of the above mentioned regulation should be strictly audited and
documented by the Ministry of Labor and Social Services. Determined fines for
violating such obligations should be deterrent.
8. School hours should be extended to fit with the working hours of parents through afterschool study halls.
9. Employers should provide on-the-job training sessions to help women returning from
maternity leave, and women should have the guarantee to return to the same or
equivalent position at work. The Labor Law should be amended accordingly in reference to
List of Issues by the CESCR, paragraph 20.
10. Regulations on caring for the elderly and the disabled should be amended to reduce
the dependency on women’s unpaid labor within the household for care-giving. The recently
introduced policy of cash transfers to women taking care of the disabled and elderly members
of the family produces disincentive effects on women’s entry into the labor market and
enhances the gender roles of women as caregivers inside the household. The cash transfer
policies need to be limited to short-run poverty relief rather than permanent sources of
income.
11. Arbitrary extension of working hours above the legal maximum should be prevented.
12. Public labor and employment authorities, primarily the Ministry for Labor and the
8
Turkish Employment Agency (ISKUR), should create institutional mechanisms in
coordination with the Ministry for Women’s and Family Affairs to design, monitor
and evaluate all their programs, policies, legal reforms and resource allocation from a
gender perspective. They should develop national policies and implementation
mechanisms specific to women’s employment.
13. In order to prevent gender discrimination in recruitment processes, the definition of
the employment relationship in the Labor Law and Public Personnel Law should
include the “engagement/recruitment process.” The scope of the Labor Law should be
expanded to also prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation.
14. Public institutions should implement a gender quota in employing and appointing
women to directorial positions, to eliminate vertical and horizontal discrimination. The
private sector should be supported with incentives to increase women’s employment.
The temporary special measures stipulated in the employment package of 2008, such
as tax reductions as an incentive to employ women, should be diversified.
15. Reinforcing the vocational and entrepreneurship training seminars geared to women
with empowerment training on gender roles, violence against women, legal literacy
and human rights should be mandatory. The Turkish Employment Agency (ISKUR)
and Social Services (SHCEK) should collaborate with women’s organizations on such
training sessions and develop effective evaluation and monitoring mechanisms.6
16. Public institutions and enterprises should issue internal bylaws against sexual
harassment at the workplace and implement effective preventive mechanisms. Private
businesses should also employ similar measures.
17. In Turkey, women earn approximately 46 percent of the income that men earn. In
order to eliminate vertical discrimination, the Public Personnel Law should be
amended to include temporary special measures and an appointment system based on
merit; to eliminate horizontal discrimination, an objective job classification system for
public employees must be developed and salaries must be determined based on this
system. Practices such as paying family allocations to men should be abolished.
18. Unpaid, temporary agricultural workers and wage worker women should be included
in the social security system until the informal/unregistered economy problem is
eliminated. Home based work is growing and diversifying as an employment sector.
Women comprise 85 to 90 percent of all home based workers. This form of
employment offers no security in terms of stability, wage, payment, and social
security. A social service approach should be developed for this kind of employment
and a minimum wage should be set.
19. Special policies, including a quota system and vocational and empowerment training
sessions are needed for women in shelters to integrate them to the labor force. They
should also be included in the social security system without having to pay premiums.
20. The state should integrate gender budgeting into its annual national budget planning.
21. Representatives of women’s organizations should be included in national bodies such
as the Economic and Social Council, and the EU-Turkey Joint Consultative
Committee (JCC) that coordinate and make recommendations on economic and
employment policies.
6
To this end, in early 2010, ILO, ISKUR, Social Services and a woman’s NGO collaborated on a pilot
implementation to integrate the Human Rights Education Program for Women with vocational training for
women in three provinces; outcomes have been positive and encouraging.
9
III. Violence against Women
Related articles: 10
The first official nationwide research study on domestic violence with a representative
sample was published in 2009. The study, similar to earlier, smaller-scale studies, revealed
that domestic violence continues to be alarmingly prevalent at 39 percent.7 Despite this fact,
currently there are only 52 regular and only one interim station-type shelters for women
survivors of domestic violence in Turkey. Furthermore, although the Prime Ministerial
Circular No. 2006/17 outlined the necessary measures and responsible institutions to combat
violence against women (VAW), since the state lacks an integrated, comprehensive policy on
this issue, budgets of the institutions charged with combating VAW have not been allocated
accordingly. The efforts spent on combating violence against women are based on
time-specific activities in the form of projects, instead of long-lived and sustainable programs.
Meanwhile, another circular issued by the Ministry of Domestic Affairs (No: 2007/8)
on the coordination of measures to combat VAW, charges governor’s offices with the task of
establishing Provincial Coordination Committees to manage the coordination and cooperation
among relevant institutions. However, only 22 out of 81 governor’s offices have established
these committees so far, only a few of the 22 work actively.
Efforts to eliminate VAW have been inadequate, and with the exception of the budget
allocated to women’s guest houses attached to the Social Services and Child Protection
Agency (SHCEK), no other public institution has a budget to combat VAW. This illustrates
the lack of political will to eradicate VAW.
The Municipality Law (No. 5393), enacted in July 2005, requires each metropolitan
municipality and any municipality with a population over 50,000 to open a women’s
shelter. Furthermore, the Prime Ministerial Circular issued in July 2006 on “Measures
to Prevent Custom and Honor Killings and Violence against Women and Children”
also encourages municipalities to open shelters. However, since there are no tangible
penalties for municipalities that do not, there were 52 shelters across Turkey as of
August 2008, with a total capacity of 1,115 women and children.8
Very few of the municipal women’s shelters employ qualified staff with a background
in social work, psychology, law and health, and capable of responding effectively to the legal,
social, educational and health needs of women and children. Shelters are often operated by
staff without a gender perspective, and there is no monitoring mechanism established to
ensure they are run efficiently.
Women’s counseling centers are insufficient in number and inadequate in service
quality. There are no state-run or municipal counseling centers specialized in VAW.
The above mentioned circular also includes the provision that “local governments and
provincial authorities shall provide multi-faceted support, including financial support,
to efforts to open and operate autonomous women’s shelters and counseling centers
that are established and run by NGOs.” However, not only is this provision not
enforced, but currently even existing partnerships with NGOs are being jeopardized.
For example, the Purple Roof Foundation—one of the oldest women’s NGOs working
on violence that operates an independent women’s shelter in Turkey—was forced out
of the shelter it was running in collaboration with the Beyoğlu District Governorship
on 31 December 2008, on the pretext of budgetary constraints.9
7
KSGM. 2009. ―Turkiye’de Kadına Yönelik Aile İçi Şiddet Araştırması‖ [Research Study on Domestic
Violence against Women in Turkey]. KSGM Yayınları. Ankara.
8
MP Nevin Gaye Erbatur. 31 March, 2009. Parliamentary question on women’s shelters.
http://www.tbmm.gov.tr/develop/owa/yazili_soru_sd.onerge_bilgileri?kanunlar_sira_no=72907.
10
Law No. 4320 on protection orders against domestic violence has still not been
amended in accordance with international standards. Although the law has been in
effect for a decade now, it is still not common practice and involves bureaucratic
procedures that forestall efficient implementation. The absence of preventive and
protective state policies and action plans, and a lacking support mechanism in the form
of shelters, also diminish the deterrent force of the law.
A nationwide research conducted in 2007 revealed that 42 percent of married women
in Turkey are not even aware that a protection order law exists.10 The state has failed to
assume responsibility for legal literacy, and left the entire burden to civil society. Institutions
already combating VAW, such as the Gazi University Medical School Hospital Group for
Prevention of Violence against Women and Women’s Legal Support Centers of Bar
Associations are being closed down or made ineffectual. Family courts, which also address
cases of violence against women, have been founded hastily, without the necessary expertise
and on-the-job training.
There is a greater probability that VAW will occur at nights and on weekends, just
when Family Courts, which decide on protection orders, are closed. This not only
encourages perpetrators to use violence at those times, but results in women accepting
that they have no recourse outside of work hours. When women apply to the Family
Court during work hours, their files are kept in distribution offices for a day and
delivered to the court the next day. This violates the principle of immediate protection.
Women’s NGOs are still not allowed to act as intervors in cases of VAW, which is a
significant factor that figures in sentence reductions, or acts of violence going unpunished due
to prevailing discriminatory judiciary practices.
Despite the legislative reforms in favor of women’s rights, courts continue to issue
verdicts against women, such as the “family assembly verdict” mentioned in the
“Equality before the Law” section of this report. Most judges and prosecutors need training
in issues related to VAW.
There is a backlash regarding the sentences for sexual crimes, despite the advances
achieved with the penal code reform. The issue of consent is being raised in the rape
of a 14 year old girl child, and there have been instances of proposals to marry the
rape victim to the rapist in order to cancel his sentence.
Forced and early marriages are still prevalent in especially Eastern and Southeastern
Turkey. As the legal age for marriage is 17, these girls are married only with a religious
ceremony when they are between 13 and 15 years of age, and cannot benefit from the rights
conferred by civil marriage.
In an interview given to a national newspaper on 7 March 2010, the State Minister for
Women’s and Family Affairs stated, “I believe that homosexuality is a disorder, an
illness. It should be treated.”11 Coming from a Minister, this statement—which is
neither medically accurate, nor democratically legitimate—positions LGBTTI
individuals as direct targets of social discrimination and hate crimes. The Minister had
not apologized to LGBTTI individuals or retracted her statement at the time this report
was prepared.
9
Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation website. 2009. ―Barınak değil, sığınak istiyoruz!‖ [We want a
shelter, not a pound!] www.morcati.org
10
Arat & Altınay. 2007. Türkiye’de kadına yönelik şiddet [Violence against women in Turkey]. Metis
Publishing. Istanbul.
11
Hürriyet Newspaper. 7 March 2010. ―Eşcinsellik hastalık, tedavi edilmeli‖ [Homosexuality is a disease,
should be treated]. http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/pazar/14031207.asp.
11
Transsexual women are subject to hate crimes, killings, lynching attempts and mass
assaults. Despite the fact that such assaults are on the increase, as “hate crimes” are
not regulated by law, they continue to go unpunished.
Although nearly all identified victims of trafficking in Turkey are women, policies that
address human trafficking lack a gender perspective, and fail to analyze of the impact
of gender inequality. In reference to the paragraph 23 of the List of Issues by CESCR,
trafficking is not considered in the framework of discrimination against women. Moreover,
the developed policies differentiate between international and domestic trafficking, which
leads to further discrimination of trafficked women of Turkish citizenship who are unable to
access existing mechanisms.
Concerning NGOs inclusion in Turkey’s efforts to counter human trafficking, two
NGOs have been involved in the process since 2004. Each runs a shelter for the
identified victims of trafficking located in Istanbul and Ankara. Although an interim
station-type shelter for the victims was also established in Antalya in 2009 by a local
NGO, NGO shelters are far from being sustainable. This is primarily because NGOs’
shelter-related activities are not financially supported by the state, but rather covered
by project-based resources granted by international institutions. The shelter in Ankara
is currently closed, due to a lack of funds. With its limited capacity and resources, the
shelter in Istanbul is the only one serving all the identified victims of trafficking across
Turkey.
In reference to paragraph 8 of CESCR’s List of Issues, refugees in Turkey are required
to pay a residence fee to access health services, and since they cannot afford it most of the
time, they are unable to access any health services other than emergencies. In addition, there
are no shelters for refugee women who are subjected to domestic violence, and the existing
shelters cannot be facilitated for their stay due to the lack of relevant regulations.
Call for Action
1. To combat violence against women, earmarked budget items should be allocated to
relevant institutions with a holistic approach. Budgetary allocations should be made to
the Ministries of Health, Justice, and Interior Affairs, the General Directorate of Social
Services, and state ministries responsible for combating VAW.
2. Organizations working on VAW and efforts undertaken by state-NGO collaboration
should be supported and strengthened.
3. The Forensic Medicine Institute should be autonomous and able to investigate cases of
violence without limited resources, time and experts. Members of the Institute should
be selected from experts with a gender perspective, and trained together with judges
and prosecutors on VAW.
4. Legal aid should be available in women’s counseling centers. Women’s right to seek
legal remedy should not be limited with the closing of Women’s Rights Centers of Bar
Associations. Special measures facilitating women’s easy access to justice must be
developed and efficient mechanisms established.
5. Multilingual emergency intervention units should be established for survivors of
VAW, open 24/7 and operated by staff with relevant background in social work,
psychology or law.
6. A separate free-of-charge, multilingual emergency helpline for women subjected to
violence should be opened.
7. Municipalities with populations over 50,000 should meet their obligation to open
shelters. Shelters should employ qualified staff with a gender perspective to meet the
psychological, legal, health, social and educational needs of women and children.
12
8. Municipalities and SHÇEK should be able to offer women staying at the shelters
services such as child care, employment, and post-shelter accommodation to enable
them to rebuild their lives. The necessary support and monitoring to ensure that
women do not return to the cycle of violence should be provided.
9. The scope of Law No. 4320 or the protection order must be expanded and made
available to all women, regardless of marital status. All instances of differential
treatment of women based on marital status should be abolished.
10. Family Courts should be institutionalized to meet the public need, mechanisms that
allow prosecutors on call to grant protection orders should be developed to enable
courts to try cases after work hours, and hearings should be confidential when
necessary.
11. The protection order law must be made more publicly known, its bureaucratic
procedures simplified and the necessary amendments made to ensure the speedy
processing of protection order applications.
12. Although not required by law, protection orders are usually granted based on reports
of physical injury. This practice must be stopped.
13. Although a regulation was issued in 2008 to ensure the protection order law is
effectively enforced, no progress has been made in its implementation. This regulation
and the legal provisions it entails—in particular, the obligation of security forces to
follow-up whether the conditions of the protection order are adhered to or not—must
be put into practice immediately.
14. Women should be able to access information on their rights, including the protection
order law, in a number of languages (Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic, Farsi etc.) and at a
number of institutions such as district offices, police stations, health institutions et
cetera, as these are often the first places survivors of violence go to.12 Staff members
at these institutions should receive on-the-job training on VAW. In addition, effort
must be spent to ensure women who directly apply to the relevant offices are aware of
their right to free-of-charge legal counsel.
15. Sexual abuse and rape crisis centers should be established throughout the country.
16. Women survivors of domestic violence should have access to all health services free of
charge.
17. Sentencing in cases of VAW and sexual violence has at times caused a backlash; this
should be prevented and sentences be made even more deterrent.
18. Women’s NGOs should be allowed to act as intervenors in all VAW cases.
19. Hate crimes should explicitly be defined by law, and the necessary measures taken to
eliminate them.
20. A mechanism must be established to provide information, psychological support and
legal assistance to women refugees who are subjected to domestic violence.
21. A gender perspective must be integrated in activities combating human trafficking,
and efforts in this field should be attuned to policies and efforts to eliminate VAW.
22. National and local governments should earmark a portion of their financial budgets for
shelters specifically for trafficked women.
12
According to a study by the Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation on women who applied to Purple Roof
between 2006 and 2008, police officers offered information on legal processes to 46 percent of the women, while
information on shelters, legal aid, compensation et cetera was provided to only 15 percent. See Banu Kavaklı
Birdal. 2008. ―Polislerin Yaklaşımına Dair Anket Çalışması Değerlendirme Raporu‖ [Evaluation Report of the
Survey on Police Attitudes]. The Purple Roof Foundation. Istanbul
13
23. In reference to paragraph 32 of the List of Issues by CESCR, refugee women should be
allowed to access all health services free-of-charge.
24. Trafficked women should be automatically issued a 6 month humanitarian visa while
at the shelter and support mechanisms such as language courses, vocational training,
and post-shelter accommodation should be established for them.
25. Citizens of Turkey who are trafficked should be integrated into the existing support
system.
26. The state should collaborate with women’s NGOs at all stages of programs, policies
and efforts toward eliminating VAW and support civil society initiatives to this end.
IV. Health47
Related articles: 12
The dominant approach to women’s health services across Turkey may be termed
“traditional” rather than “holistic,” focusing as it does on reproductive age. Consequently,
adolescents, menopausal and post-menopausal women are the most neglected groups. Women
face an intricate web of problems beginning with boy preference at birth, followed by
problems in adolescence—early marriage, and early and risky pregnancy especially in rural
areas—and being almost “disregarded” once menopause occurs and afterwards.
Awareness-raising training programs on family planning and clinical services do not
target men. According to data from the Turkey Demographic and Health Survey
(2003), the service gap in family planning is 38 percent. Furthermore, due to limited
awareness, 28 percent of women who use birth control employ inefficient methods.13
There is significant service gaps based on regional discrepancy in the use of family
planning methods and modern contraceptives.14
Turkey’s Population Planning Law, dated 1983, includes a provision that requires
spousal consent for married women to have an abortion; this violates patients’ rights,
women’s bodily autonomy, and reproductive health and rights. It furthermore
discriminates among women based on marital status. According to the Turkish Penal
Code (Article 99) adopted in 2005—which supersedes the aforementioned provision—
abortions performed within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy are legal, and the consent
of women alone is to be sought in performing an abortion. The violation of a woman’s
right to safe abortion is a crime punishable by 2 to 4 years of imprisonment.
According to the National Maternal Mortality Study conducted in 2005, maternal
mortality rate is rather high, at 28.5 per 100,000 live births, and there is a significant
difference in rates between rural-urban and eastern-western regions.15 This indicates
that Turkey is in breach of Article 12, Paragraph 2 of the Convention.
The Social Security Law which went into effect in October 1, 2008 has rendered
women more dependent on fathers and husbands for access to cost-free health care.51
The Legal Consultancy Department of the Ministry for Health issued a position paper
that calls for the legal authorities to be notified in cases of out-of-wedlock pregnancies
of girls under the age 18. This position could also lead to the restriction of access to
reproductive and sexual health services for young girls under 18 (and above 15), as the
13
Hacettepe University, Population Studies Institute. 2003. Turkey Demographic and Health Survey (TNSA).
Ankara: Hacettepe University.
14
Hacettepe University, Population Studies Institute. 2008. Turkey Demographic and Health Survey (TNSA).
Ankara: Hacettepe University.
15
Hacettepe University, Population Studies Institute, ICON-Institute Public Sector GmbH and BNB Consulting
(2006). National Maternal Mortality Study, 2005, General Directorate of Mother-Child Health and Family
Planning and the Delegation of the European Commission to Turkey, Ankara.
14
pregnancy can be interpreted as a sign of “sexual attack” to be reported to legal
authorities under Article 104 of the Penal Code, which is still contested by women’s
organizations as it leaves room for penalizing the consensual sexual relations of young
people.
The new family practitioner system in Turkey is progressing toward a
noncomprehensive approach that focuses on treatment as opposed to prevention, and the
privatization of health. Moreover, indicators from cities where the family medicine
system has gone into effect are not being publicly shared in a constructive and
transparent manner. The responsibilities of Community Centers and Family Health
Units are not explicitly defined. While the “Health Transformation and Family
Practitioners” program will clearly affect disadvantaged women even more negatively,
its expansion as is will potentially lead to more unfavorable outcomes.16 Further, the
practice of family practitioners is causing restriction both in the scope of and access to
the basic health services targeting women and girl children.
In reference to paragraph 30(b) of the List of issues by CESCR, HIV positive women
are widely discriminated against in Turkey. Both the risk of being HIV positive, and
encountering problems in access to medical treatment and justice are greater for women.
Women diagnosed as HIV positive can lose their jobs, thereby their public health insurance.
Discrimination against HIV positive individuals is the most prevalent form of discrimination
in health institutions. While a diagnosis of HIV positive status has to remain private, this
information is used openly by the media, in a way that exposes women.
Call for Action:
1. As proposed in the 1994 International Population and Development Conference
(ICPD), a “holistic” approach to women’s health and the integration of reproductive
health services to basic health services is necessary.
2. Everyone should have access to free, integrated, available, quality health services.
Women who only speak Kurdish, Arabic, Farsi, et cetera, as opposed to the official
state language, should also have access to health services with “a special service
approach” that takes language and cultural differences into consideration.
3. Family planning services should be expanded to address unmet needs.
4. Article 6, Paragraph 2 of the Population Planning Law that requires spousal consent
before married women can have an abortion should be abolished as it is a direct
violation of women’s reproductive rights. This provision, adopted in 1983, also
contradicts the regulations of the Turkish Penal Code (Article 99) adopted in 2005.
5. Special measures should be adopted to protect women and girls diagnosed with
HIV/AIDS and ensure their access to healthcare. Awareness-raising activities on HIV/AIDS
and campaigns should be developed from a gender perspective in combating HIV/AIDS.
6. Maternal mortality should be prevented immediately. Prenatal and obstetric care
services should be improved to this end, and obstacles in accessing these services
should be eliminated. Awareness-raising programs should be available for expectant
mothers and families to learn of the relevant risks and protection mechanisms.
7. Unmarried women, adolescents/youth, menopausal and post menopausal women
should have access to reproductive and sexual health services, and comprehensive
programs targeting these neglected groups should be implemented.
8. All health professionals, including pharmacists, should receive training on gender
16
Istanbul Chamber of Medicine. 2009. Türkiye’de Sağlık Politikaları Üzerine Yazılar-II, Sağlıkta Dönüşüm
[Essays on Health Policies in Turkey-II, Health Transformation]. Istanbul.
15
equality and violence against women. To this end, the issues of gender equality and
violence against women should be included in the curricula of secondary and tertiary
level vocational education.
V. Education
Related articles: 13 and 14
According to 2006 figures, 19.6 percent of women in Turkey are illiterate. Despite the
various campaigns and programs carried out by the state and NGOs to encourage the
education of girls, the increase achieved from 2000 to 2006 was a mere 0.2 percent.
Although Turkey pledged to achieve universal literacy for women by 2000 within the
framework of the 1996 Beijing Declaration, data provided by UNESCO suggests that
Turkey is one of the countries at risk of failing to realize gender equality in primary and
secondary education until 2015.17
Official data shows an increase in girls’ schooling rates at all levels. Schooling rates
increased from 88.54 percent to 97.37 percent from 2000 to 2008; however, the rate of
girls in compulsory primary education only climbed from 45 percent to 47.6 percent since
1998, when the compulsory education law was enacted.
Although there is an increase in schooling levels in secondary education, there is no
significant increase in favor of girls (45.2% in 2000, 46.0% in 2007). Moreover, there is
a decrease in the number of girls who attend secondary school (including vocational
school), which is not compulsory.
While the rate of girls in higher education is increasing compared to boys (43.2% in
2000, 44.6% in 2007), the number of girls who attend technical sciences remained constant.
Education statistics shows an upward trend, but this increase is only parallel to population
growth. Women’s education is concentrated in traditionally “female-specific” fields, and
discriminating stereotypes continue to obstruct the education of women and girls.
There is no education in native languages other than Turkish. For example, Kurdish
girls who cannot speak Turkish face many problems because of the lack of education in
Kurdish. They encounter Turkish for the first time in their lives at school, which
constitutes a major disadvantage throughout their primary school education.
Awareness-raising education campaigns for women on
gender roles and laws and regulations are very important for women’s nonformal education.
The most enduring and sustainable state initiative to this end is a legal literacy and human
rights training program for women, implemented in collaboration with an NGO since 1998, at
community centers attached to the General Directorate of Social Services. The program aims
to raise legal literacy among women, thereby improving their ability and capacity to enjoy
their basic rights in both the private and public spheres.18 State resources allocated to program
implementation in the field helped sustain the program for over a decade, which has now
spread throughout the country.19 Similar informal education programs are an effective method
in preventing discrimination against women, and are successfully implemented throughout
Turkey by various NGOs. Such programs are important opportunities for state-NGO
17
UNESCO. 2006. Global Monitoring Report. http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.phpURL_ID=43283&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.
18
This field education program uses the CEDAW Convention as a tool to underline the international nature of
the existing consensus on women’s human rights.
19
The program was also presented to the CEDAW Committee in the The Sixth Periodic Country Report for
Turkey, Article 5(b), pp. 20-21 by the State of Turkey.
16
collaboration; they should be supported by the state and enhanced both financially and
logistically in a wider framework.
In addition to the legal literacy and human rights training for women, various other
programs are implemented at Community Centers, including those geared to create
awareness among women. Although Community Centers are easily accessible by women
and provide the most accurate information about women’s rights, their numbers and
geographical coverage have unfortunately stayed the same, with limited human and
material resources. They remain understaffed, despite the pressing demand especially for
social workers qualified to meet increasing and changing needs. Community Centers are
attached to the General Directorate of Social Services, which recently initiated structural
reforms in plans to streamline community social services. This may imply closing down
Community Centers, and transferring responsibility to centrally located “social centers.”
These efforts at restructuring would constitute a great threat to the invaluable services
social workers offer and provide to local women.
Call for Action
1. The state should fulfill its commitments arising from the Beijing and Beijing+5 PoA. An
education policy coherent with social structure and dynamics should be developed in
order to achieve full gender equality in education and universal literacy.
2. Compulsory education should be 12 years.
3. The state should ensure that girls are registered at the state population register and develop
efficient mechanisms to monitor their regular school attendance and prevent invisible
dropouts (i.e. parents send their daughters to work the fields or relocate in another city
after enrolling them in school) as mentioned in paragraph 33 of the List of Issues by the
CESCR.
4. Widespread preschool education is needed in order to reduce the housework and care
responsibilities of women and older sisters.
5. Equality in access to means and resources such as scholarships, accommodation and
equipment should be targeted; this should be monitored through statistical data and
temporary special measures should be employed in favor of girls.
6. The project undertaken by the Ministry of Education to remove discriminatory elements
from school textbooks should be accelerated and should be repeated periodically, and
women’s NGOs should contribute to this process.
7. The state should collect data about multiple instances of discrimination that women and
girls whose native language is not Turkish face in accessing education and achieving school
success, and develop relevant policies to resolve their problems. Education programs in native
languages should be developed.
8. Parent education and on-the-job training for education personnel should be given
particular importance.
9. Special programs should be developed for the education and integration of physically or
mentally disabled girls of schooling age.
10. Special programs should be implemented for the education and integration of women
prisoners.
11. The state should support informal education programs developed by NGOs on issues such
as women’s human rights, citizenship rights and legal literacy through improved
allocation of resources and explicit acknowledgement of political commitment for such
programs to continue and expand. In doing so, the state should openly acknowledge
women’s NGOs as collaborating partners to ensure effective design and implementation.
Community Centers should be supported in order to accommodate and expand such
17
programs.
12. The Public Administration Reform Act should include a regulation requiring local
administrations to employ qualified and experienced staff for Community Centers and
demand their close cooperation with NGOs.
13. Women’s education should be channeled out of traditionally “female-specific” fields.
.
18